Module 4: Ethics and Cultural Considerations Flashcards
Morality:
pervasive set of values that we live by often viewed in relation to right and wrong behaviour.
Law:
defines minimum standards of acceptable behaviour.
Ethical Decision Making
- Recognize that there is a ethical issue present.
- Clarify the ethical issues.
- Generate and examine available courses of action.
- Choose and implement the most preferred option.
- Reflect on and review the process
APS Code of Ethics Build on three general ethical principles:
- Respect: for the rights and dignity of people and peoples.
- Propriety: incorporates principles of beneficence, non-maleficence (including competence) and responsibility to clients, the profession and society. Do good, or no harm. Responsibility to clients.
- Integrity: reflects the need for psychologists to have good character and acknowledges the high level of trust intrinsic to their professional relationships, and the impact of their conduct on the reputation of the profession.
APS Code of Ethics: Section B.13
- Use established scientific procedures and observed relevant psychometric standards when developing and standardising tests and other assessment techniques.
- Specify purposes and uses of their assessment techniques and clearly indicate limits of applicability.
- Choose, administer, interpret assessment procedures appropriately and accurately.
- Use valid and research findings when scoring and interpreting psychological assessment data.
- Report assessment results appropriately and accurately in language recipient can understand.
- Do not compromise effective use of methods or techniques, nor render them open to misuse, by publishing or otherwise disclosing contents to unauthorised or unqualified people.
Ethical Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and use of Psychological tests:
- Competence.
- Development of psychological tests.
- Informed consent.
- Confidentiality.
- Communication of test results.
- Security of psychological assessment data and records.
- Justice.
- Acquisition and security of psychological tests.
- Teaching psychological assessment.
- Research context.
Competent use of tests encompasses:
- Determining need to use a test.
- Choosing an appropriate and technically sound instrument.
- Organising and conducting session.
- Accurate scoring and use of norm tables.
- Interpreting the results.
- Communicating the results.
- Making decisions on the basis of results.
- Monitoring the continuing effectiveness of test over time.
- Appreciating range of professional and ethical issues surrounding use of tests.
Jenkinson (1991) argues all 5 key areas in which psychologists have grounding are relevant:
1• Social and biological bases of behaviour
2• Individual differences in capacity and behaviour
3• Basic psychological processes- learning, memory, affect, information processing.
4• Experimental design, research methodology, statistics.
5• Practical work with humans.
Ethical responsibilities to client: The client needs to understand:
- Why they are attending.
- What are they going to be asked to do?
- Why are they being asked to do this?
- That they have a right to choose not to do this – that assessment is voluntary.
- Consequences of choosing to undertake or not undertake the assessment.
- Who will get the results?
- How might those results be used?
But who is the client?
In many cases, it is unclear who is the client and therefore has a right to information:
• Organisation undertaken assessment for purposes of hiring or promoting.
• Employment service asks for assessment for aiding determination of eligibility for disability support pension.
• Assessment as part of presentencing report for court.
• Family law court assessment for custody.
• Dual relationships therefore exist: with the person being assessed and 3rd party. Assessed needs to understand this.
• Relationships need to be clarified.
Feedback to client:
• Client has a right to results, interpretations made, and basis for conclusions and recommendations made as result of assessment.
• Even if it is distressing, information must be communicated in a manner appropriate to their level of understanding.
• Be aware of counter transference to the client.
o Don’t want to punish a client. Because you identify with them or you don’t like them.
o Need to make sure your bias is separate to your objective observations.
o Be aware of bias when meeting a client.
Test Security:
- Guidelines specify that psychologists are responsible for the security of the tests that they use.
- Certain classes of tests can only be purchased by qualified individuals.
Cultural considerations
APS code of ethics – respect for the rights and dignity of people and people’s Ethical guidelines for assessment etc… Justice.
• Addresses discrimination.
• Recognises the importance impact of culture and language in testing and assessment.
• Recognises the need for appropriate adaptation of testing for individual clients.
DSM-V Includes information on cultural formulation interviews:
- The values, orientations, knowledge, and practices that the individual derive from membership in diverse social groups.
- Aspects of an individual’s background, developmental experiences, and current social contexts may affect their perspective, such as geographical origin, migration, language, religion, sexual orientation or race/ethnicity.
- The influence of family, friends, and other community members of the individual’s illness experience.
Understanding the cultural context of the client:
What is the referral question?
How might culture impact upon the assessment?
• Mode of circumstances of migration
• Language
• Identification with dominant cultural group.
• Education.
• Age.
• Gender.
• Racism.
• Selection of tests -translated tests, use of interpreters.
o Interpreter will affect validity of results.
o Interpreter can filter information.
o Interpreter might know the client/friends and family.
• Interpretation of test results.
o Some words don’t have a meaning in some language.
o Can’t interpret as the test was originally designed.
• Feedback to client.
